TRAINING GAPS IN ENGINEERING DEGREES FOR INDUSTRY 4.0 IN SPAIN. A PROPOSAL FOR ACTIONS

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to identify the competency requirements of manufacturing resulting from the fourth industrial revolution. The smart factory of industry 4.0 is described in generic form, identifying the main technologies employed, and the implications of their use in the development of new business models and the innovative activity of the company. In this way, we can approximate the main future competencies of the workforce, focusing on the advanced technical and management functions to be developed by the grade industrial engineer. Thus, a typology of competences has been established that distinguishes between: (1) technological ones, related to the knowledge and use of new information, communication and production technologies; (2) technical ones, related to the capabilities for the design and management of the smart factory business processes; and (3) the personal ones, that collect the attitude dimension of the engineers in the development of their functions. Using information from the ANECA, about the competences of Engineering Degrees in Mechanics, Industrial Electronics and Automation, and Industrial Organization, in this paper we identify the competence gap of the grade engineers trained in Spanish public universities in relation to the I4.0 competences (technical and technological) for the smart factory management on the future.